Petros Malayan was an Armenian painter, illustrator, and teacher whose career joined rigorous academic training with a vivid, human-centered view of everyday life. Born on January 4, 1927, to a family of Armenian refugees from Kars, he studied first at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1945 to 1947 before transferring to the Yerevan State Institute of Fine Arts, where he graduated with distinction in 1951. He was then invited to remain as a drawing instructor, beginning a long teaching career that influenced generations of artists. Malayan worked across portraiture, compositional painting, watercolor, illustration, and printed graphics. His art is often noted for disciplined draftsmanship, balanced color, and a strong sense of design, while many of his subjects reflect contemporary Armenian life and the dignity of ordinary working people. From 1970, he represented Armenia on the Soviet Artists’ Association watercolor commission and helped curate major watercolor plein-air events. His work was exhibited widely in Armenia and abroad, and he received the title Honored Artist of the Armenian Republic in 1983. In 1990 he became professor and chair of drawing at the Yerevan Art Institute. After moving to Tel Aviv for medical treatment in 1993, he continued working until his death in 1997.